What Lights You Up?
Someone in an online group I'm in almost didn't bring up farming. She typed the question out first: Would that be boring for everyone? The room lit up immediately. Tell us everything. And I thought, what if that happened more often? What if that was just what social media felt like?
I've noticed something about people who geek out about their work or their passions: they're almost always really good at what they do. The excitement and excellence tend to travel together. When someone can't help but go deep on something: the soil composition, the hive behavior, the way a sentence lands. That's mastery showing itself. It's love made visible. And it's amazing to watch.
Think about your feed right now. How much of it is outrage, anxiety, selling, and performance? Really, it doesn’t feel like much of it is people sharing what genuinely lights them up.
Now imagine it flipped.
Imagine stopping your scrolling for someone going full nerd about beekeeping. A mechanic who can't stop talking about what makes an engine sing. A teacher sharing the exact moment a concept clicked for a kid who'd been struggling for weeks. A farmer explaining why this particular soil, this particular season, feels like a gift. Gardening, woodworking, crystals, classic cars…
That's not boring. I don’t know a lot about social media or algorithms, but that's the internet I want to live on. I want to learn from other people who are passionate about what they do.
Here's my ask — and it's a small one.
This week, share something you're genuinely passionate about. Not borrowed outrage. Not something everyone else is already talking about. Not a reaction. The real thing. The thing that brings you so much joy you could talk about for two hours without noticing the time.
Geek out a little.
Because someone out there is going to read it and exhale. They're going to feel less alone in their own weird, specific loves. They might even remember they have some.
Joy is contagious. Enthusiasm is permission.
We could really use both right now.